By Ngozi Nwoke
A lawmaker, Enyinnaya Abaribe, member, representing Abia South Senatorial District, and former Senate minority leader has reacted to the three months suspension of the senate lawmaker, Adbul Ningi over N3.7 trillion budget padding allegation.
He clarified that N500 million was given to top ranking senators for constituency projects, which he wasn’t among the recipients.
He said: “I’m a little bothered by what is happening in the Senate. Senator Ningi gave an report that was amplified in ways that weren’t intended. Senator Olamilekan gave a succinct detail of whatever Ningi didn’t have. I felt that the matter should have ended at Sen. Olamilekan’s explanation. At that point, we advised Ningi to apologise and let’s move on to other matters. But he continued to insist on his allegation, which was not believed to be correct. Emeothiins are always involved in matters like this.
“I never got the N500 million. Maybe being the minority of the minority, I was not considered worthy of being given. There are duplications in the budget, and we have mechanisms to correct them. This mechanism guides senators against inciting the public against the Senate. The public already has resentment on both the Senate and the government, and that is understandable because things are difficult, and some of us at the Senate have said we should deal with the substantive issues.
At the point of debate, you are supposed to cross-check the budget while it is being presented to correct any duplications. If the correction is not made at the point of debate and the budget is passed, and this is the case of Senator Ningi.
“The problem is that the case was not handled in-house. Rather, a press conference was made by the BBC painting the Senate in a bad light. The matter should have ended at the point where it was clarified that there was no duplication. It shouldn’t have gone beyond that. It was not necessary for Ningi to continue to dig into matters when we had so much on our plate. Nigeria is in trouble, and we just had a sad case of the mass kidnapping of children who are in the bush hopelessly.”
Correcting the speculations that the money was given cash to the top ranking senators, Abaribe noted that all constituency project allocation is paid into the constituency account ans not into a personal account.
“I want to correct the false impression the public already has. No Senator receives constituency project money into a personal account. Every constituency has a project account where the allocation is sent. The responsibility of the Senator is to monitor the funds and ensure that the projects are carried out to the end through the ministry or department. A senator is not supposed to have a role in deciding who the contractor to carry out the project should be. I know that our system is corrupt, but I think that we should be circumspect when it comes to making allegations of this nature.
“In the case of Senator Ningi, there is no system that functions without disagreements. It is best known to him why he chose to bring the matter to the open. It is normal in our political system. We have rules. The rule says in section 66 that a Senator can be disciplined when he goes wrong. If I were the Senate president, o would have handled the case differently. The rules must be adhered to. Any system without rules will devolve into chaos. We just have to move on.”